Taylor Swift
| Origin = Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, USA | Instrument = guitar, vocals | Genre = Country | Occupation = Singer-songwriter | Years_active = 2006–Present | Label = Big Machine Records | Associated_acts = Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Danielle Peck | URL = Taylor Swift Official Site }} Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is a Platinum-selling, American country music singer-songwriter. In 2006, she had her first hit at the young age of 16, called "Tim McGraw", about a summer love. Since then, she has risen to fame as a successful teenage star and is also an Internet sensation. She won CMT's "Breakthrough Video of the Year" award in 2007 for her hit "Tim McGraw", and was also nominated by the Academy of Country Music for "Top New Female Vocalist". Soon after, her debut album was certified Platinum and expected to eventually go 3x Platinum, according to her label's CEO.http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_headlines/article/0,,GAC_26063_5582100,00.html Biography Early years Taylor Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She had musical influences in her life from an early age, as her maternal grandmother was a professional opera singer and was one of her key inspirations in her musical careerhttp://www.gactv.com/gac/ar_artists_a-z/article/0,,GAC_26071_4736016,00.html. At the age of six Taylor's first idol in country music was LeAnn Rimes (who was only 14) and from there she went back learning the history of country music by listening to legend like Dolly and Patsy Cline -- women who were the essence of country musichttp://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_feature/article/0,,GAC_26499_4743992,00.html. A love of music soon developed into a need to perform and it was not long before she joined the children's theatre group in her hometown of Wyommissing, Pennsylvania. Here she noticed while playing the role of Sandy in Grease that her style of singing sounded country and so country music was the type of music she needed to be doinghttp://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_feature/article/0,,GAC_26499_4743992,00.html. At the age of ten, Swift began to perform around her hometown, singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs. Her first exposure to the music business consisted of recording demo tapes at a studio. At age 11, Taylor decided to make her first trip to Nashville in hopes of attaining a record deal by handing out a demo tape she had made of her singing along to karaoke songs to receptionists at every label on Music Rowhttp://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_feature/article/0,,GAC_26499_4743992,00.html. Taylor returned to Pennsylvania without a record deal but remained content in her ability writing her first song, "Lucky You."http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_feature/article/0,,GAC_26499_4743992,00.html. At twelve, she gained interest in the guitar and began to write songs. When Swift was thirteen, she sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers gamehttp://www.gactv.com/gac/ar_artists_a-z/article/0,,GAC_26071_4736016,00.html. During this time she also took regular trips with her family to Nashville, Tennessee, to perform her music. As in the case with a struggling artist of any age, all Taylor needed was a break. It came at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, when her rendition of the national anthem wowed a crowd that included the manager of Britney Spearshttp://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_feature/article/0,,GAC_26499_4743992,00.html. Within a few months she was featured as a rising star in an Abercrombie & Fitch campaign. In Nashville she wrote songs with local songwriters. The family decided to move to Hendersonville, TN, an outlying Nashville suburb. Today, Taylor Swift is very grateful for all her success in the country music industry. When she performed at Nashville's premier songwriters' cafe, The Bluebird Café, she caught the attention of Scott Borchetta. Scott wanted to put her on his new label, Big Machine Recordshttp://www.gactv.com/gac/ar_artists_a-z/article/0,,GAC_26071_4736016,00.html. Rise to fame Swift's first single, "Tim McGraw", was released to radio in Summer of 2006. The video debuted in July 2006 on Great American Country. On October 24, 2006, her self-titled CD was released. The CD, on which Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, peaked at #19 on the sales charts and sold more than 61,000 during its first week. The song "Tim McGraw" peaked at #6 on the chart week of January 27, 2007. The video set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC's fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown showhttp://beasley.wsu.edu/calendar/event.aspx?event=147, and the video reached #1 on CMT's video charts. Since her success, she has appeared on Good Morning America and at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards. She also won "Breakthrough Video of the Year" on the 2007 CMT Music Awards with "Tim McGraw". Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel Great American Country.She didn't win, but was runner up. Swift sang the national anthem at the November 12, 2006 Checker Auto Parts 500 NASCAR race and at the November 23, 2006 Thanksgiving Day football game between the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions, as well as performing at halftime at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. She appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on February 13, 2007, where she performed her single, "Tim McGraw." She has gone on tour as an opening act for Rascal Flatts, George Strait, and Brad Paisley. She appears as a dancer in the music video for Paisley's song "Online". On May 15, 2007, Swift performed her Gold single, "Tim McGraw," at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She sang the song to Tim McGraw in the audience, and introduced herself for the first time to him. It has also been announced that Taylor will be the opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tourhttp://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1561014/20070601/swift__taylor.jhtml. Taylor's luck continued when she was named a presenter and performer at the prestigous American Women in Radio and Television event in New York in June 2007. She also announced plans to record and have a second album release in 2008, the same year she is scheduled to graduate high school.http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/06/14/freetime/doc46705afca358e744644753.txt Discography Albums Singles ACurrent single. Awards *CMT Music Awards **2007, Breakthrough Video of the Year: Tim McGraw (Won) *Academy of Country Music Awards ** 2007, Top New Female Vocalist: Nominated (lost to Miranda Lambert) References External links *Taylor Swift Official Website *Taylor-Fan.Com *Taylor Swift Review at UnRatedMagazine.com *Taylor Swift's Official Myspace *Sound bites from a Jan. 2007 interview *TaylorSwift-Fans.com Category:1989 births Category:American female singers Category:American country singers Category:Living people Category:American child singers Category:People from Berks County, Pennsylvania Category:Pennsylvania musicians Category:American country singer-songwriters